Leaf-mine: In spring a short corridor is made that is almost stuffed with frass. After hibernation this mine is vacated, and the larva then makes a number of elongated blotches, all descending from the leaf tip. These latter mines are whitish, with irregularly scattered frass (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: Lemon yellow, dull yellowish to greenish yellow with a lighter mid-dorsal line; head light brown. According to Hering (1957a) the prothoracic plate has a darker centre (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Pupa: Details unknown.

Adult: The adult is illustrated in UKMoths. The male genitalia, but not the female genitalia (check for update), are illustrated by the Lepidoptera Dissection Group.

Comments: Deschampsia cespitosa is the main host plant; the other host plants on the list are not all equally trustworthy because of possible confusion with Elachista canapennella (Traugott-Olsen and Nielsen, 1977a) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - larvae: Autumn - spring (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Time of year - adults: Unknown.

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Britain including Bedfordshire, Caernarvonshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Denbighshire, Derbyshire, East Suffolk, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Herefordshire, Huntingdonshire, Kincardine, Merionethshire, North Aberdeen, North Hampshire, North Wiltshire, North-east Yorkshire, Shropshire, South Aberdeen, South Wiltshire, Stafford, West Gloucestershire and Worcestershire (NBN Gateway , N.B. includes Watsonian Vice Counties having publicly available records that fall within or overlap the vice county border at 10km resolution or better i.e. a record for a vice county may relate to an adjacent vice county - for included datasets see NBN Grid map below) and the Channel Is. and Northern Ireland (Karsholt and van Nieukerken in Fauna Europaea).

Also recorded in the Republic of Ireland (Karsholt and van Nieukerken in Fauna Europaea).

NBN Grid map: Note that not all datasets on the NBN Gateway may be available on the map below. If you are an NBN Gateway registered user you can request access for missing datasets via the link 'Open interactive map in new window' below.

Distribution elsewhere: Widespread in continental Europe including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia, Finland, French mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia - Central and North, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands (Karsholt and van Nieukerken in Fauna Europaea).

NBN interactive distribution map(s) of known host species in Great Britain and Ireland and elsewhere:

Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: Unknown.